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Friday, June 27, 2014

This week, the homeschool familes of Nampula hosted a presentation night with the theme of art and music. The boys had worked long and hard on their projects and were excited to show off their work as well as cheer on their friends who had all worked hard too.

For those who are far away, here is a look into their presentations. Caleb did an artist study on Leonardo da Vinci. His display included facts on the artist, a colored Mona Lisa and Last Supper and a depiction of da Vinci's workshop...including a lego corpse for dissection (one of the artist's studious past times).

And for his presentation:

Nathan did his presentation on poetry and music:

And his presentation:

As you can see, both boys did a great job. Not a bit of nerves even as they spoke in front of around fifty people. We are thankful for the all the families who helped make this night a success and for the opportunity we had to be a part of such a fun time!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

This is the third and final part of a talk I gave recently. You can find part one here and part two here.

So now that we have these two clear examples of
unmet expectations, we once again are left asking, so what does this mean for
me?How does the way they respond to
their unmet expectations shine light into my life?Is it enough to change me in anyway?I hope so, at least for my own life.

We have now been in Mozambique for ten months.I can remember for the first few months many
of you asking, “So how is it?Is it what
you expected?”In those first few weeks
I can remember answering that it was what I expected for the most part.Still, as our time has grown longer here, I
can say more clearly now that in many ways it is not what I expected.

My tiqvahs have been challenged in my relationships
near and far, in my children, in serving the Mozambicans, in our ministry and
in our very purpose in being here.So as
I look back at these two examples and ask how they responded to unmet
expectations, I cannot but ask myself how I respond in like.

I wish I could tell you that I have responded daily
without grumbling and despair, but then I would be lying to you and I think
there is something in the Bible about the whole lying thing, so much better to
be honest.I have grumbled, complained,
whined and in some moments been led to despair.I think the hardest part for me has been the moments in which I have
doubted God’s purposes for us here.When
I begin to think that He is not what I expected.

As God has revealed to me how I respond through this
study of unmet expectations, He has also revealed to me that I have a choice in
how I respond.If I walk away with one
thing, if you remember one thing from this talk it is this:When
we have unmet expectations, we choose whether we respond to the circumstances
created or to the character and promises of our Creator.

For the Israelites, they responded to the
circumstances around them.They
responded to the lack of water and food instead to the character of God that is
promise-keeper and provider.They
responded with fear to the Canaanites instead of responding to the character of
God that was their protector and who would lead them in battle as the Warrior
King.

For the disciples, I think they initially responded
to their circumstances.They responded
to the death of their friend with fear and despair instead of remembering His
character of love and His promise that His death was for their good and
salvation.I think they responded to
His rising from the tomb and his ascension in a way that responded more to His
character than their circumstances.They
were still under the tyranny of Rome, still without the physical presence of
their dearest friend- yet they responded to His commands to go and teach with
the power and presence of His character as never before.

For me, I hope that I am learning to respond and
trust the character of God over the reality of my circumstances of unmet
expectations here in Mozambique.I
remind myself often that He is good, He is for me, He has a plan that is good
for me and for this moment, He specifically intended for me to be a part of His
plan here in Nampula.

And for you?What now?I think it is safe to
assume we all deal with unmet expectations and with tiqvahs that have been tied
in knots.It is also safe to assume we
all respond to these unmet expectations in many different ways.My prayer is that as you face yours this
coming week that you will remember your choice- will you respond to the circumstances
created or to the character and promises of the One who created you?Remember He is good.He is in control.He has a plan for you.It is for your good and ultimately for His
glory.

As it says in Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is
able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think [or imagine, to
Him that is beyond even our greatest tiqvahs], according to the power that
works within us [His glorious power], to Him be the glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen”

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

This is part two of a talk I recently gave. Check out part one here, if you haven't done so already.

We are not alone in having unmet expectations, nor
in how we react to them.As we look at
some Biblical examples, we see we are in good company.

The first example that came to my mind thinking
about unmet expectations in the Old Testament was the Israelites in the book of
Exodus.Here we have a group of people
who have seen the power of God in amazing ways: 10 plagues, freedom from
slavery, a dry walk across the Red Sea.I think as they began their journey to the land which God had promised
them, they expected a cake walk.They
expected to walk there in style and then for the people there to either bow
down to them immediately or simply be decimated by the power of God even before
they got there.

They did not expect the thirst of days in the desert
without water (Exodus 15). They did not expect the hunger of dry lands (Exodus
16).They did not expect the land to be
full of giants, strong cities and mighty armies (Numbers 13).They definitely did not expect to still be
walking forty years later.In terms of
tiqvah or expectations, theirs had been torn down and crushed under the millions
of steps through dry, rocky, barren terrain.

And how did they respond?They grumbled, complained, and whined.They doubted not only their human leadership
in Moses and Aaron, but the leadership of God himself.In the end, as a result of their reactions to
their unmet expectations, many of them chose to sin through idolatry, sexual
immorality and rebellion…all of which ultimately led to death.

That seems pretty extreme, right?The idea that a reaction to unmet expectation
can lead to death?Glad I am not in
their shoes walking through the desert and glad my reactions won’t lead me
there.But wait...where did their
reactions start?Grumbling, complaining,
whining.All of a sudden, I feel a
little more worried and a little more convicted.How often is my reaction to something not
going the way I expected grumbling or complaining?Not just that initial gut reaction of “ugh,”
but a prolonged period of discontent with the circumstances because they were
not what I had planned or wanted.

Unfortunately, this is my reaction way too often for
sure.Will this grumbling lead to my
death?Unsure.But this I know, a heart that is full of grumbling
and discontentment is far more likely to choose to sin than one full of
peace.The Bible is clear that the
result of sin is death- whether it is physical death, death of earthly
relationships or even the death of a vibrant relationship with the One who
created and loves me more than I can imagine- the wages of sin is death.If my reactions to unmet expectations can
start me down this path of death through a grumbling spirit, I want to be
extremely careful in how I choose to respond when my tiqvahs are
unrealized.

In addition to the Old Testament example of the
Israelites, we also have a clear example of unmet expectations in the New
Testament example of the disciples.

The disciples have put out their tiqvah in the form
of the expectations of who Jesus is and what He will do for them.Many of them left everything- family,
careers, friends- to follow after this man.He is their last and only hope.He is their hope for freedom from the tyranny of the hated Romans.He is their hope for physical prosperity in
this world as they hope to rule beside Him.He is their hope for eternal peace and rest with God.He is their teacher, their friend, their
Messiah, their conquering king.

Then he is arrested.He is beaten.He is spit
upon.And the strangest thing to them…He
doesn’t fight.He is like the silly
sheep which go so quietly to be slaughtered.And their hearts cry, “Where is His army?Where is His victory? How can this be?”Then when it can’t get much worse, He is hung
upon a cross and their greatest dreams ebb away with his dying pulse.It is over-all they had planned, hoped for,
dreamed of in this man, over. The loud
thud of the rock settling in front of His tomb echoes through the empty parts
of their souls where once the greatest of expectations had dwelled.

So there they are, their expectations shattered and
what is their response?They scatter in
fear, they hide in despair and mourn all that is lost.But in the midst of this, “On the Sabbath,
they rested according to the commandment.”(Luke 23:56)Even in the midst of
their shattered expectations, they still rested in the One who had brought them
this far.

Then, with the shouts of HE IS RISEN, their tiqvahs
are turned upside down once again…for this Risen Savior, this Eternal King,
this death-conquering Messiah is once again not what they expected.He is far beyond everything they hoped for
and imagined...He is now their tiqvah that will never fade nor disappoint.And how do they respond?Once again, they respond with their
everything.

So now that we have these two clear examples of
unmet expectations, we once again are left asking, so what does this mean for
me?How does the way they respond to
their unmet expectations shine light into my life?Is it enough to change me in anyway?I hope so, at least for my own life....

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to share at our weekly English fellowship. I wanted to share it here on the blog as well, but broken down in parts over the next few days. I hope you stick through it and learn from it as I truly did.

When I was praying and thinking over what I was to
share tonight, I had a couple of options that seemed to come to the
forefront.I continued to pray and think
over the things God has been showing me recently and settled on the theme of
expectations.That’s right, in God’s
wonderful sense of humor, the one who is expecting is up here talking about
expectations.I am a big fan of visuals
to accompany talks like this, so maybe the belly will help you remember what we
talk about tonight.

Twelve years ago, this coming August, David and I
began our wonderfully, blissful married life.Well, except for the part that it hasn’t always been wonderfully
blissful.Take Saturdays for the first
six months of our marriage for example.By the end of Saturday afternoon, and I mean almost every Saturday
afternoon, we would end up arguing about something.I kid you not.I can remember thinking, “Ugh, we are arguing
again…oh wait, it is Saturday, that is what we do.”It
took a good six months for us to realize the pattern and the cause of it.

There we were, two adults with two very different
expectations of what a Saturday should look like.My idea of a great Saturday was you would
sleep in a little, lazily start your day with a good breakfast, maybe go out
for lunch or for a few errands.Overall
Saturdays were to relax and regroup from a long week at work.David, on the other hand, thought Saturdays
were to get all the little things done that were neglected through the
week.He wanted us up early, a quick
breakfast, followed by a good cleaning of the apartment, grocery shopping and
so on.These were two very different
expectations of a Saturday and needless to say, fitting them into one Saturday
each week caused us quite a bit of conflict.

While we have learned to compromise and work out
what a Saturday in our household looks like over the years, I still hold onto
the lesson I learned during that period of life- unmet expectations have a huge
impact on relationships and on life in general.Unmet expectations not only provide the foundation for conflict and
anger, but also for disappointment, discouragement and even despair.

So what do I mean by unmet expectations?By expectations I mean those things that we
look forward to, things that we regard as likely to happen, our hopes &
dreams, but even more deeply, things that we fully plan to happen…though those
plans might be more on a subconscious level.In Biblical terms , the Hebrew word tiqvah, which is used for
expectation in some versions of Psalm 62:5 is often translated as hope as
well.Psalm 62:5 in the Amplified Bible
says “My soul, wait only upon God and silently submit
to Him; for my hope and expectation are from Him.”Whether tiqvah is thought of as hope or
expectation there is a sense of an outcome associated with it as its
root word means to wait or eagerly look for, to long for or linger for
something.

It is also interesting to note that this word tiqvah
is also translated as chord or line and is used specifically in the story of
Rahab in Joshua chapter 2.She hangs a
red “tiqvah” out of her window to let the invading Israelites know where she
and her family are waiting for them as they attack Jericho.This “tiqvah” is her last hope, her
expectation and the means to her desired outcome of salvation with the
Israelites.

And so it is with us.In our relationships, whether it is with our spouse,
children, family or friends; in our jobs and ministries; in our future plans
and in our moment by moment daily plans, even in our belief of how God should coordinate
our lives and the universe- we hang out our tiqvahs- ours hopes and
expectations…waiting eagerly for the outcome we for which we long and
desire.

And then, more often than not- our tiqvahs are cut,
torn from our hands or tied into knots by the reality of our
circumstances.Something happens and we
are left with the thoughts, “I didn’t see that coming; That is not how that was
supposed to work; Why can’t it just go my way this time?”

Unmet expectations exist on many levels, anything
from expecting chicken for dinner and getting beef to the unexpected death of a
child or dear friend.Needless to say,
our reactions to unmet expectations will vary depending on the levels of
intensity as well.Still I think like in
many other aspects of life, how we react in our “small” unmet expectations can build
and impact how we react to the large ones in the end as well.

We are not alone in having unmet expectations, nor
in how we react to them.As we look at
some Biblical examples, we see we are in good company.... to be continued tomorrow with Part 2...